The fourth installment in the Women's Murder Club series takes Lindsay through her toughest case yet as she is sued for using excessive force while investigating a series of brutal murders that may be tied to a cold case still nagging her.

As always, this book by Patterson was a page-turner, but some of the plot lines seemed rather ludicrous, as if Patterson is running out of material or forcing out books faster than good ideas come to him.

A great thriller about a downed Concorde full of diplomats who are forced to battle their kidnappers instead of attending the peace conference scheduled in New York. Much of the story takes place in historic Babylon.

Patterson strays a bit from his normal formula to deliver a long (700+ pages) somewhat pedantic story involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At his best when he sticks to courtroom scenes, this was still a good read, just not one of his best.

Barry Eisler's latest novel departs from the John Rain series to two estranged brothers in the west coast, as different as they can be: one (Ben) a soldier running black ops, and the other (Alex) a lawyer in a well-heeled law firm doing patent and software work. But when Alex's client and the patent examiner reviewing his new software are murdered, and Alex looks to be next, he calls his big brother for help. Adding to the mix is Alex's Iranian co-worker, whom Alex has a crush on and Ben does not trust.

Although I missed the exciting locales of the "Rain" series, I enjoyed the writing and storyline in this book as much as the other series.

In some ways, I enjoyed this book more than the original. The character of John Sutter is in rare sarcastic form, and his first-person comments are often laugh out loud funny, if you appreciate an acerbic wit. However, this book is way too long and could have benefited from some more judicious editing.

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. A thrilling storyline combined with strong character development and excellent writing made this book a page-turner for me. My only complaint, a minor one, is that this was written by a British author for a British audience, so I struggled with some of the references.

The second installment in the John Rain series finds the protagonist in semi-retirement. But he soon learned that retirement isn't really in his cards. Wonderful descriptions of Tokyo and page-turning action.

You don't have to be a hockey dad (or even hockey mom) to appreciate this book about the sacrifices and joys a family makes while the 10-year-old son plays travel hockey in the Midwest. The author is a morning drive radio host, so, like many morning radio shows, some jokes miss the mark while others are laugh out loud funny.